Contextual Reference - Construct

My chosen contextual reference for construct is Malhia Kent. I found their work to be very creatively inspiring and full of ideas to help me develop my time in weave. Their way of working is very fun and colourful which l really like; it reminds me a lot like the way I work. The company specialises in luxury traditional fabrics that are ready to wear. They have more than 2000 fabrics produced per season and are 100% made in France in a mansion, which includes their showroom and hands on workshops! They also have a style team scattered all over the world. After several years of collaborating with Coco Channel, Michele Sorano founded Malhia Kent in 1987. The more l research into their work the more interesting l find it! They have an in-house creative team that fabricates woven fabrics for haute couture and top of the range women’s-wear.

The fabrics they use include fancy tweeds, open-work fabrics, sequined materials and Jacquards, Also adding lots of ribbons, fancy trims, mohair, feathers, glitter, raphia, lace and haberdashery. The Company’s range has various sources of inspiration including animal fur, blurred landscapes, extravagant mixtures, raffia, graphic design, hand-woven crafts and used metal. I tried to use lots of different coloured, textured and glittery yarns in my weaves, but in seeing Malhia’s work I will go on to being more experimental. I will maybe incorporate various fancy fabrics, haberdashery, paper and glittery finds in to them!

The way they add different materials and yarns into their weaves are simple yet visually effective; it makes the weaves appear more complex than they probably are. They’ve been known to print over the top of chunky weaves which l find particularly interesting and would like to develop my weaves further by doing this! She also uses lots of marks, patterns and lines like l have tried to use in mine to represent my drawings.

On their website they say ‘creativity is our only goal’ which l think sums up their work, it’s very unique. I love everything about the work, from the texture, to the colours to the fuss of all the different materials they incorporate.  

Reference: (www.malhia.fr)